pub / gas argument, please tell me im right

[bmx]

talking to a bloke in the pub last night who said he "went to uk gas and got a new gas solonoid valve for his baxi boiler, and fitted it himself" he says that if its for yourself and you don't get paid for it, then he is intitled to do it himself as a diy-er.

is this the case or does he need a corgi registered person to do it?

 

[JPC]

its his family.

 

[chrishutt]

He can only do it himself if he is competent to do so. Unless he knows about as much as a Corgi registered gas installer, which is highly unlikely, then he wouldn't be competent and his action would be illegal, not to mention dangerous.

For example does he know how to test for gas tightness? Does he know how to adjust the burner pressure? Does he know how to test for spillage? It is quite possible that his boiler is now emitting toxic or explosive gases!

 

[lor]

bmx, yor mate in the pub is wrong.

 

[Nestor_Kelebay]

Requirements vary from country to country and even within the same country. Here in Canada, I'm not allowed to do my own gas piping, but I understand that in some of the US states, the regulations are far more relaxed, and people connect their own gas fired water heaters all the time.

If anyone does attempt to do their own gas piping, at the very least ensure you paint every joint with a 50/50 mixture of liquid dish washing detergent and water. If any gas is leaking, it will blow bubbles and you'll be aware of the leak. Still, the gas companies have much more sensitive equipment that will detect gas leaks too small to detect with soap.

Still, it's not a good idea to muck with gas piping unless you're competant because this is one area where you literally CAN blow your house up. We as DIY'ers save 95 percent of the cost of maintaining and upgrading our homes by doing things ourselves. Why risk our homes and everything in them by doing things we shouldn't do to save some of that remaining 5 percent. That's not just foolish, it's foolishness on stilts.

 

[Softus]

talking to a bloke in the pub last night who said he "went to uk gas and got a new gas solonoid valve for his baxi boiler, and fitted it himself" he says that if its for yourself and you don't get paid for it, then he is intitled to do it himself as a diy-er.

is this the case or does he need a corgi registered person to do it?

Presumably when you say entitled you mean legally permitted, in which case chrishutt is absolutely right, in that "the bloke in the pub" has to be competent in order to do what he claims to have done, and that it's unlikely that he's competent enough.

However, he hasn't broken the law, unless he's shown to have been incompetent.

And as for Nestor_Kelebay - IMHO it's very unwise to start dishing out partial information on soundness checking. A little knowledge could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.

 

[andsam]

Where is this UK Gas.

 

[chrishutt]

http://www.ukgasspares.co.uk/

Google's quite handy for finding these things.

 

[andsam]

Only asked as it sounds like the supplier I use. But then I thought there could be another. Thanks but I already know how good Google is.

 

[ollski]

Well if its just a plug in electric solenoid maybe yes unless it goes wrong in which case no...house insurance would jump on it. In short the answer is....maybe. But god, who cares?.

 

[Softus]

Only asked as it sounds like the supplier I use. But then I thought there could be another. Thanks but I already know how good Google is.

Hm, but you don't yet know how funely-tuned chrishutt's sense of irony is...

 

[Paul Barker]

Phone manufacturers and ask what to do, they never ask for my corgi number or spend more than 1 second contemplating it if I force it down their throats. So anyone can find out what to do, and nobody ever asks my corgi number when I order parts.

The law is an ass, because the systems are not in place to prevent missuse.

the only people that suffer from the powers exerting any kind of control are us guys. It's open house for you non competents! Do as you please you'll never be cought.

 

[Softus]

You make it sound like a very black and white world Paul, but it isn't - it's very grey.

There's an entire spectrum of behaviour ranging from law-abiding to law-abusing; the law is there to discourage and to penalise, and the lack f policing doesn't make the law an ass.

If unsafe practices weren't illegal, then there would be many more people than there currently are who would tackle jobs without competence.

 

[Softus]

Yes, my point (clearly) was that he might not be what you've summarily judged him to be.

 

[Paul Barker]

No ot's nopt a black and white world, but my complaint is that they only control the whites.